Norma Isabel

Norma is 34 years old and a single mother with six children. She lives in a suburb of Choloma, Cortes and has been making and selling chocolates, tortillas, and soft drinks. She has had two previous loan cycles through ODEF and has a good record. Now she is asking for a loan of 14,000 Lempiras so she can buy a refrigerator for her business and fix the windows in her home. She plans to install a floor in her home with her earnings. Her goal is to ensure that her children graduate and grow the business.

Additional Information

More information about this loan

This loan is part of a program called Proyecto MIRE, which is being implemented jointly by ODEF and Plan Honduras in rural villages in Lempira, Honduras. The program targets families who are too poor to qualify for traditional microfinance loans and lack income-generating activities. The two-year program aims to give these families the tools they need to “graduate” from extreme poverty through training, financial literacy education, savings and a productive asset transfer. Once a participant has a viable business and has achieved certain goals, they are eligible to receive a Kiva loan for their new business from ODEF. Kiva is proud to support this initiative to empower rural Honduran families to lift themselves out of poverty.

This loan is administered by Organización de Desarrollo Empresarial Femenino Financiera, S.A. (ODEF), a Kiva Field Partner in Honduras. A leader in the microfinance sector since 1985, ODEF strives to combat poverty by offering a wide array of financial services to low-income men and women. The organization works with its parent NGO, ODEF OPD, to provide training and technical assistance to impoverished microentrepreneurs. By incorporating the entire family unit in this process, ODEF OPD aims to improve the standard of living through the creation of profitable enterprises. Visit ODEF’s partner page for more information.